Stephen Aylen has taken a swing at Southend-on-Sea city council (Picture: SWNS/Stephen Aylen)
A resident fed-up with the number of potholes on his road has dusted off his golfing irons to take his own ‘100 pothole’ course.
Fuming Stephen Aylen, 66, says there are ‘121 road defects and potholes’ on the road called Woodside in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
The retired engineer and ex-councillor, who was taught to play by his dad, clams his efforts to get Southend Council to repair the pubic road have been ‘fruitless.’
So on Wednesday, he got out his golf clubs to highlight the condition of the mile long, public road which was built in 1956.
Stephen said: ‘It was a nice morning for a spot of golf, and why travel to a course when I have so many holes right outside my house.
‘It’s not only this road, the whole area is littered with potholes and no matter what it seems the council refuses to fix them.
‘To us residents, we feel like the council is sticking two fingers up at us.’
The road, called Woodside, doubles as a make-shift crazy golf course (Picture: Stephen Aylen/SWNS)
Residents have routinely complained about damage to their cars caused by the many potholes.
Mr Aylen and his neighbours are also unhappy that the council has contracted work to replace paving stone pavements on the road – while seemingly ignoring the holes.
He added: ‘We have the council vandalising the pavements when residents do not want the paving stone to be replaced.
‘Yet we have all the potholes in the road that we want fixed that are being ignored.
Stephen claims there are around 100 potholes on the stretch of road (Picture: SWNS/Stephen Aylen)
‘All the while their work teams are on the road tearing up the pavements and replacing them with asphalt.’
Southend-on-Sea independent councillor Steven Wakefield, responsible for highways, transport and parking, said: ‘We would encourage local residents to report road defects or roads that need resurfacing or patchwork, via MySouthend.
‘We prioritise repair and resurfacing works by going through a strict quality check in line with the council’s procedure, which is based on various risks, and in accordance with the Highways Code of Practice.
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‘This procedure considers various items including road condition, bus routes, key routes, claims made, incidents, and flood risk.’
After Mr Aylen’s golf protest close-to-home golfing hobby some of the pot-hole were ‘patch-fixed.’
He added: ‘It’s a shame, we’d organised a fishing competition for this weekend.’
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Stephen Aylen has taken a swing at Southend-on-Sea city council.
